Cultural adaptation and validation of the water attitude scale: Insights from Hungarian student responses

Education plays a crucial role in shaping future generations. This is also the case for the formation of environmental attitudes. Hungary is a country with abundant water resources; however, fostering students with a strong water attitude is especially important for the future, even in such nations. The objective of this study was to adapt and validate the Water Attitude Scale (WAS) questionnaire for use with primary school students in Hungary. A total of 964 students from grades 5–8, enrolled in twenty schools located in Southern Transdanubia, completed the questionnaire. The results of the confirmatory factor analysis indicated that the original factor structure was not an optimal fit for the data, prompting the development of a new four-factor model through exploratory factor analysis. The revised factors were: 1) The Value of Water and Responsibility, 2) Awareness and Education, 3) Water Usage at Home and in Society, and 4) Responsibility and Intervention. Analysis across grade levels revealed that fifth graders showed high initial awareness, which gradually declined in higher grades, while attitudes toward water use improved with age. Responsibility peaked in grade 6 but decreased slightly thereafter. The adapted questionnaire proved to be a reliable and valid tool for assessing water-related attitudes among Hungarian students, making it applicable for both diagnostic purposes in environmental education and as a foundation for longitudinal studies.